It's been another glorious year for my lifelong sports love, the 31-5 University of LouisvilleCardinals. This season has been especially sweet because of the struggles of Louisville's archrival, the Nike mannequins known as the Kentucky Wildcats. At season's start, some Kentucky fans were so confident of a perfect season that they printed up 40-0 T-shirts. Ha!

As Louisville rolled to win after win, Kentucky packed on 10 losses. There was pouting. Disarray. Heartache. Soon UK fans took to message boards with torches in hand, calling for an end to the flash-and-dash, one-and-done John Calipari era. It was glorious validation for me, a once-a-year sports columnist who last spring called the coming Kentucky team of seven McDonald's All-Americans a hollow Death Star.

But here we all are. Again. A Sweet 16 matchup, the second Kentucky-Louisville tournament meeting in three years.

And I'm going to be sick.

Why? It's not just that Kentucky has an excellent chance to win this game. It's the funny way that kismet and expectations have scrambled the paths of these two teams.

Turns out that losing was the best thing to happen to Kentucky and its fans. Wretched losses against the likes of South Carolina and Arkansas removed the unbearable yoke of perfection. Many of the die-hards—including my best friend, an unconscionable Louisville-to-Kentucky turncoat—had literally given up on the squad and stopped watching.

If you told UK fans in November that the team would only advance to the Sweet 16, they would all declare the season a failure. By March, most were bracing for an early NCAA exit, prepping their torches for a Calipari hunt.

But then came a close battle against No. 1-ranked Florida. And then the wonderfully played tournament victory over undefeated Wichita State. The Wildcats are even making free throws.

And so it is that a lowly 8 seed, with the single greatest recruiting class in the sport's history, is somehow exceeding expectations.

Should it not even advance to the Final Four, the opportunity to stick it to Louisville is a delicious and vengeful final turn. It's as if Calipari had this diabolical fail-to-succeed plan all along, and was just waiting to move his Death Star into position.

For Louisville, the situation is more fraught. It is the defending national champion, and has its own yoke of expectation, created by everyone from President Obama (who picked Louisville to reach the title game) to fivethirtyeight.com predictioneer Nate Silver, whose model has dubbed the Cardinals the favorites. Louisville was so dominating at the end of the season that it beat one team by 61 points. And if you've not spent time on YouTube gawking at forward Montrezl Harrell's dunks, please do so now.

The reality is that Louisville's first two tournament games were wretched. All-American guard Russ Smith couldn't shoot or pass. He looked hobbled and disinterested. Louisville also lost an earlier game against Kentucky this year, where it was outrebounded and outmuscled. Neither of Louisville's two guards are over 6 feet. Kentucky's Harrison twins, Aaron and Andrew, each stand 6-foot-6.

Louisville does have plenty going for it. First is experience. Second is a swarming, pressing defense that has been honed into one of the nation's best. It should collect plenty of turnovers against this gaggle of UK freshmen. And it's reassuring to know that Las Vegas has faith in the Cards, where bettors peg them as a four-point favorite.

And yet I can't help but feel a sense of ominousness about this game. By the twisted emotional calculus of fandom, there's too much to lose and not enough to gain. It's just not fun anymore.

During the Louisville-Kentucky Final Four matchup in 2012, I was on a joyous roll as Louisville advanced against expectations. Back then, I wondered in a Journal column: "Where do we find the most joy as fans? Does it come from our teams' absolute achievements—championship or bust? Or is it all relative, when they perform beyond what we anticipate?"

That column ended with a swipe at UK, saying that we should pity its fans because they did not know the "joy of the struggle" of Louisville's overachievers. Winning, I wrote, brought only a "pinch of relief."

Here's the odd thing: I'm starting to know just what that pinch feels like. Maybe over these last three years, we Louisville and Kentucky fans have more in common than we ever knew.

And certainly more than we would ever admit.

—Dennis K. Berman, the Journal's business editor, is a longtime Louisville fan. Follow him on Twitter: @dkberman.

Only Auburn/Alabama in football comes close to this rivalry. The intensity of the emotions involving what can only be described as the death struggle between the two preeminent programs currently in college basketball is epic. It does remain unfair to both programs to ask them to meet before the Final Four. I guess the NCAA is tired of seeing them both there too often.

Being a UK graduate, I bleed blue and will cheer for UK to win. This should be a great game, and great for for the state Kentucky. I admire and respect the U of L basketball program, and as anyone in the SEC can tell you, any team can win on any day if they want it bad enough.

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